Dubai A policeman has been sentenced to six months in jail for having sex with a woman after his lawyer told a court that a rape charge brought against his client was not tenable because the complainant was three times his client's size.

The Dubai Court of First Instance handed the 21-year-old Emirati policeman, F.A., a lenient punishment after lawyer Yousuf Hammad argued that it would be impossible for F.A. to have raped his 20-year-old compatriot because she was obese.

"It would have been impossible for him to have raped the student between the passenger's and driver's seat of his saloon car," Hammad contended before Presiding Judge Al Saeed Mohammad Barghout.

Prosecutors had asked the court to punish F.A. with a death sentence.

The court also acquitted F.A. of tricking the student, M.J., and kidnapping her.

Compensation demand

The student's civil right advocate Eisa Bin Haidar lodged a civil lawsuit seeking Dh20,000 in temporary compensation. The lawsuit was referred to the Dubai Civil Court.

"My client is very slim and she is very fat… it would have been unimaginable for F.A. to have raped her the way she described it to prosecutors and policemen. The claimant gave an inconsistent and contradicting statement. She claimed he raped her between the two seats, and at the passenger's seat and at the rear seat," argued Hammad.

Prosecutors had charged F.A. with tricking the college student into joining him for a drive and raping her at a dark and deserted spot in Muhaisnah.

F.A. earlier denied the charges of kidnapping 20-year-old M.J. under threat and raping and sexually assaulting her. "I am not guilty. I did not kidnap or rape her… it was consensual," contended F.A.

Hammad also argued that the case was one of consensual sex and not rape or sexual molestation as was being made out. "The claimant exchanged her contact details with the suspect and they started talking… on the day of the incident, she willingly joined him in his car," he told the court.

Prosecution records said F.A. threatened to kill M.J. if she did not drive her car behind his car and she was so terrified she followed his car until they stopped in front of Al Qusais police station, where she parked her car and got in his car.

"She testified that someone named Atiq knocked on the car window while F.A. was raping her. Why didn't she cry out for help? Why didn't she ask Atiq for assistance? My client's entire behaviour was consensual… she staged this incident to force my client to marry her," contended Hammad.

Hammad asked the court to pronounce F.A.'s innocence or reject the civil lawsuit and refer it to the Public Prosecution for a reinvestigation in a "consensual sex case". The judgement is subject to appeal within 15 days.